The Magnificent Mughals
| Editors: |
Zeenut Ziad |
| Foreword by: |
Milo Cleveland Beach |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD university Press |
Amazon Price $104.51
Table of contents
Foreword
Review: by David Taylor DAWN May 11, 2003
COFFEE-table books have a generally deserved reputation for superficiality; designed to be picked up casually, they are put aside after a few idle minutes. But although this book on the Mughals has the quality of illustration, finish and production that one would expect from a volume intended for display, it is at the same time a serious and thoughtful collection of essays covering most aspects of Mughal history and culture. They initially took the form of public lectures at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and are here presented to a wider audience.
| DesiStore # |
PBH01007 |
| ISBN |
978-0-19-579444-1 |
| Edition |
Second |
| Year |
2007 |
| Pages |
317 |
| Weight (kg) |
1.7 |
| Shipping Weight (lbs) |
3.74 |
| Images |
181 |
| HB/PB |
Hard Back |
|
From an early stage the Mughal court was a magnet for artists and artisans of all descriptions. Gradually a distinctive Mughal style emerged, for example within painting, where many different forms developed. Delicate portraiture, concern with the natural world, and the wonderfully dense pictures illustrating, for example, the Hamzanama (one of which is reproduced here, and many more are currently on exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) are all the products of conscious court patronage and connoisseurship.
 Having dominated South Asia for so long, it is not surprising that the Mughal influence can be felt in many different ways today. The idea of a centralized bureaucratic state, although deriving immediately from the colonial period, was initially a Mughal development, as was a heavy reliance on exploitation of the agricultural base. In music and poetry, forms and styles established during the later Mughal period continue to inspire and stimulate, although much less so in architecture and painting. No serious history of South Asia can be written that ignores or downplays the Mughal period, and the present collection is an excellent way to begin to understand it.
The Magnificent Mughals
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